Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Bath Time

We have a Great Dane, and while by Great Dane standards she’s quite small, she is still one-hundred-twenty-five pounds of pure muscle and stubbornness. When it is time to give her a bath it can take ten minutes just to get her into the tub. She also needs her nails cut and ears cleaned, so this should pose to be a fantastic morning. Please allow me to continue drinking my coffee.

Having a dog who has chronic yeast infections due to both environmental and food allergies and on top of that has developed an allergy to the yeast itself is beyond frustrating. Sure, we feed her food that doesn’t have any grains since her allergy tests showed that, well, she’s allergic to practically all of them, but her environmental allergies include a wide variety of trees, grasses, mold and mildew, all of which are prominently featured here in the Pacific Northwest. One good thing to come from moving out of the old house is that this one does not have a mold or mildew problem, which has cut down tremendously on her major outbreaks.

But, first things first, I need to wash all of her bedding in All Free & Clear and cider vinegar to remove any allergens and also not leave any residues that might further irritate her skin. I use about a quarter cup cider vinegar in the wash and another quarter cup for a fabric softener. By bedding I’m also including her sofa quilts I made so she doesn’t stink up the couch too much. It still needs Febreezed because, damn, that dog’s yeasty body odor penetrates EVERYTHING. However, after a bath she smells pleasant… for a day or two anyway.